I still haven’t figured out whether the 2007 division title was won because we had a good team or whether the rest of division was just out taking a piss. I still like to give credit to the team before taking into account Boston, New York and Philadelphia’s pathetic seasons. The defining aspect of that season was the PG play of Jose Calderon and T.J Ford, it was a constant advantage for the Raptors on any given night when they weren’t playing the Suns. The PG spot had the highest positional PER for us that year at 19.9 and even though Ford was hit with injuries the year after, the PG play still remained strong and registered a PER of 21.5. Could Jarrett Jack mean the return of PG dominance in Toronto?
Well, no. See, Calderon and Ford complemented each other in a way Jack and Calderon never can. Ford played at an entirely different pace than Jose and set the tone early using his speed, agility and quickness to throw off defenses. As much as some hated him, he had a one-on-one game which allowed him to create without the help of a screen which always kept defenses on their feet and forced them to pay close attention to a second player on the team (Bosh being the other). When Calderon stepped in, the game turned into a half-court affair with his turn-the-corner speed off the high pick becoming a resourceful weapon along with a mid-range jumper used only when the defender went under, something he improved as the season went along. One was a risk-taker who feared nothing and took his chances, the other a pragmatist who always chose the careful option but could burn you if you didn’t respect him. Defenses had to deal with two very different problems and through it was our advantage.
Had those two learned to play together and figured out that they’re perfect complementary players things would’ve been a lot different right now. As it stands, Jack is brought in to back-up Calderon but the scenario is very different than Forderon. Jack doesn’t have the motor Ford had, much like Calderon he tends to settle into the half-court game and take his chances running sets which he doesn’t like to deviate from. If called upon to do so he can take his man one-on-one in a bullish fashion but it’s nothing compared to Ford’s ability to penetrate in his prime. The same can be said for Calderon, he’ll never be known for his ability to break down his defender but will always look to run the coach’s play first before taking matters into his own hands – conservative to say the least. Neither player is known for their drive-and-kick skill but both possess solid mid-range games (Jack 45% and Calderon 50% FG last season). The overlap in their respective offensive games is such that it shouldn’t really matter who is playing, other than Jack’s slashing ability they’re far more similar on offense than different. When they’re playing with the other four starters it’ll be like having a steady, consistent PG play rather than the roller-coaster ride that was Forderon.
Jack should be playing with the starters as much as Calderon which is likely since teams rarely make 5 for 5 subs thus putting out a pure second unit. However, there will be times in the second quarter when he’ll be asked to play alongside Wright, Rasho, Evans and Delfino. Unless you have a team that executes exceptionally well you’re going to struggle to score and this is where we’ll need Jack to emulate Ford’s ability to score in bunches. Nobody’s asking him to be Mike James II but he’ll need to be far more assertive here than when playing with Bosh and Turkoglu. Ford recognized that need (sometimes to a fault), question is whether Jack can be “the man” on the floor for a few minutes a game. Last year we saw how sad we were when Will Solomon or Roko Ukic were thrust into that role and Jack should be better. Actually, if he can make an entry-pass into the post without wetting his pants he’s already done good.
Calderon and Ford were both mediocre defenders when they were in Toronto, the latter’s size was an issue and the former’s quickness. I remember Mitchell doing a decent job of hiding Ford’s size so we never really felt like he was being exploited. It’s always harder to hide lateral quickness so most of us only remember Calderon being attacked at the point which isn’t very fair to him. They were both bad. In the Jack/Calderon combo, Jack is the far superior defender while Jose is supposed to be the more refined offensive player. I strongly believe that we need to be proactive when analyzing PG match-ups, if there is a hint that Calderon is not upto the defensive assignment against the other starting PG, insert Jack immediately and let them switch roles for that game. Last year Calderon was getting exploited in the first quarter while Triano looked on only because the usual Calderon first quarter rest point of 10 minutes wasn’t here yet. Sure, Roko struggled offensively but he was still better at plugging a hole; my point is that there’s no reason to follow the script with Calderon and Jack.
The equation has also changed with DeRozan/Wright replacing Parker who often demanded a pass after running off of baseline screens. Calderon might struggle finding cutters to the hoop but he is excellent at picking out open perimeter players through quick-hits, skip-passes and the pick ‘n pop. He dominated the ball last year while waiting for plays like these to develop, to some extent it was needed since he was one of the few who could handle the role but this year his role will have changed. Turkoglu will see a lot of the ball at the start of the possession forcing Calderon to play off the ball, something he is not good at. Jack on the other hand is known to slash, bump and bruise without the ball and loves physical contact. While he doesn’t have Calderon’s three-point shooting ability, he could provide the cutting options needed when Turkoglu drives to create.
In fact, a lineup of Calderon (spot-up three), Jack (slasher, mid-range jumper), DeRozan (slasher, rebounder), Bosh (mid-range jumper or offensive rebounder) and Turkoglu (ball-handler) could be an ideal offensive unit which combines rebounding, shot-making and penetration. The idea is that the projected starting lineup is not necessarily the best Raptors unit out there and we should be using the most effective group of guys; often times that will mean playing Jack and Calderon together, something that previous coaches rarely did with Calderon and his backup.
Here’s another scenario: As Colangelo pointed out a couple days ago, DeRozan will determine how much Jack plays. I’d like to add it’ll also determine where he plays. If we sign Delfino and he becomes a staple as the backup for Turkoglu it would basically take up all the minutes at the SF. Right now expecting Wright to hold his own defensively and hoping that DeRozan can provide an offensive punch while not being a defensive liability. If DeRozan and Wright can do the same as Turkoglu/Delfino, Jack’s SG role (he played 48% of his minutes there last year) will quickly be diminished and he’ll be a strict backup for Calderon. Calderon played 34 minute a game last year which proved to be too much, the year before that he was at 30 which seemed more ideal. Assuming he goes back to 30 minutes a night it leaves 18 minutes for Jack, would that be good utilization? I’m starting to think the fight for SG minutes isn’t going to be between DeRozan and Jack, it’ll be between Wright and Jack, especially if we sign Delfino.
So those are my thoughts at 2:24AM. I think I’ll post this. Forgive me if I didn’t make any sense.
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I can speak for many raptors fans when I say POPS!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtYYP9nZPKc
he comes cheap and the fans love him.
anyway, good article, I apologize for my man crush!
Near the end of last season I was ready to ‘Sport the PaperBag’ over my head & show MLSE my love, but then I seen it….
At the point when every player & every fan gave up on the Craptors, POPS showed some pure Love & Excitement for the game. Sure it was his ‘Small Window’ of opportunity to show the league who Number 44 was, but he was the epitomey of was the Craptor lacked last year, HEART, DETERMINATION, RESILIENCE when your team is in the trenches.
The Craptors would alway seem to ‘Hang Their Heads’ last year. It was like a disease that spread across the team. BUT not POPS. Not the 4 4. He came out ‘Guns a BLAZING’ ready to battle. Sure you could find faults in his game but he was that speciality player when the team hung their heads like a bunch of babies. Insert ‘The 4 4′ and you had instant BELIEF again.
Only problem with going after Pops Mensah-Bonsu OVER Rasho is your getting a Speciality player Over a refined VET that you can count on any night. Rasho gives the Bench stability. A Vet that’s seen it all. Played through probaby any senerio you can through at a Natural Center. Rasho gives you a ‘Good Foundation’ & Pops give you a ‘Piller of Hope’.
I think BC is waiting for another team to show interest in Pops first before he is forced to decide between Pops OR Rasho. If nobody wants to sign Pops you can get him for dirt cheap. If a team does give Pops an offer you can alway match it if you have no options left. In the mean time you wine & dinne Rasho like he’s the KING of Toronto and try to get hime to except a Vet’s Minium.
I really like Pops. I was yelling for the ‘Magnum’, ‘The 4 4′, ‘POPS’. He definalty got me out of my seat. BUT it like deciding between the girl you meet at the bar VS the girl you meet at the libaray. One provides excitement right off the hop BUT the other in the long run provides so much more.
Pops is like that hot girl, who used to always be chubby, until she got super motivated to score a decent guy with some cashflow…you always wonder if she will keep it going or just fall back into old habits once she gets comfortable.
I love that Pops energized the fanbase last year, for the short time he was battling to keep his NBA career alive (in meaningless games to most), and I’d much rather have him than some others that have roster spots, but I think he’s a bit of fools gold.
That’s the ‘Piller of Hope’. There is not too many things the Piller is supporting, but if it falls so does the bench. I’d rather build my bench on ‘Strong Foundation’ then a ‘Single Piller’.
“Pops is like that hot girl, who used to always be chubby, until she got super motivated to score a decent guy with some cashflow…you always wonder if she will keep it going or just fall back into old habits once she gets comfortable.”
Rap of the day!
why is everyone trying to decide between Pops and Rasho when there’s a bunch of other dead weight on the team?
Pops is a 3/4, Rasho is a 5
1. Patrick O’Bryant
2. Devean George
3. Roko Ukic
There are three guys with a relatively low salary on the current roster that I’d rather have Pops over. I didn’t mention Carcass Banks because he’s untradeable
“In fact, a lineup of Calderon (spot-up three), Jack (slasher, mid-range jumper), DeRozan (slasher), Bosh (mid-range jumper or offensive rebounder), Evans (offensive rebounder) and Turkoglu (ball-handler) could be an ideal offensive unit which combines rebounding, shot-making and penetration.”
LOL, yeah, I’m guessing a 6-man unit would be pretty efficient offensively.
No Need to apologize The Raptors need Pops Mensah-Bonsu. He deserves a roster spot more than Banks,O’bryant,George,Ukic and Delfino.
The things Pops did last season for the raptors reminded me of Jason Maxiell. And FYI he had a career high in points with the Raptors. Dropped 21 on the Pacers. Bring the British Bulldog back Bryan Colangelo you wont be sorry
THERE ARE CONTRACT CONSIDERATIONS! THOSE PEOPLE HAVE GUARANTEED CONTRACTS!!!
Why is this so hard to comprehend? To sign Pops, you need to cut one of those guys. If you sign Pops for $1M, you have to really spend $2.6M on him because you need to get rid of one of the others.
If you think Pops would be better than Rasho, you are on crack. Get over Pops, he’s not a difference maker.
The fans love him, and yes he can be a difference maker. Did you watch any games last year? Did you see the crowd? Give the damn fans what they want.
Wasn’t the NBA about entertainment?
There are lots of ways for BC to work it out, take the 4 team trade as exhibit A
Give the fans what they want every 4th game…because he’s not playing ahead of Bosh, Bargs, Evans or Rasho. Not a lot of minutes for the 5th big man on any team.
Look, I loved Pape Sow too, but it doesn’t mean he added any Ws to the team. Spending extra cash for the guy is fiscally irresponsible.
Thank you. I love Pops. Love his energy, love his excitement. But the inclusion of Pops on this team will have very, very little impact on the eventual outcome. He would be a 3rd stringer. There is not one 3rd stringer in the NBA that is a “difference maker”.
There are two roster spots left, and Delfino and Rasho are available. Delfino and Rasho are decent basketball players who fill a need on the team (backup wing and backup centre). Pops is a borderline NBA talent (as much as you may love him, he’s never played more than 22 games in a season) who doesn’t address a need for the team.
Furthermore, if Rasho or Delfino doesn’t work out, there are better options out there than Pops. Guys that would better address a need, and are simply better basketball players.
As I said, I love the type of game Pops plays, but I’m sorry to say that there’s a reason he has never been re-signed by anybody in his NBA career.
Defensively, you’re in for a long season. Calderon, Bargnani and Turk will all have tremendous difficulty checking their respective positions. And when you have 3 starters that can’t guard their position, you’re fu*ked.
In terms of the recent division championship, yes, Forderon (love that!) was a big reason. So was Rasho. He played good D and hit open jumpers. I’d also venture to say that Sam Mitchell should get some credit for implementing a scheme that took advantage of what he had.
Oh come on…. You’re worried about Bargnani’s D? what about Bosh? Last year Bargs WAS our best defensive Big. If you’re going to make comments at least watch the games!
Bosh is a much better positional defender, pick and roll defender and overall defensive anchor than Bargnani. Sure he can get manhandled one on one due to his slight frame, but he’s usually where he’s supposed to be.
Bargnani’s good at picking up a guy early (usually his own) and blocking the crap out of him, but that’s it.
Please. Bargnani was PUNISHED by decent big men. Bosh is a much better defender. Bargnani improved a lot, but seriously, his defensive awareness and rebounding awareness are subpar.
I didn’t really watch The Magic all that much last year aside from the playoffs, but I do remember some pretty solid man D from Turk. Now I definitly followed the raps last year and can say that Bargnani’s man D was pretty effective, but his help D was horrible (lets not get into his rebounding) I always believed our biggest problem on D was guard D, in that we had none.
Actually, along with dribble penetration, it was the Raptors inability to guard the pick and roll which hurt them most defensively last year. Hopefully Iavroni can address that.
For early AM thoughts, I think it was very sound….great job! I was snoring at 2:24am…. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
I think if Jack proves to be effective at the PG, than give JC more of a rest (as you stated, let the game decide who plays the point)… especially if we see DeRozan catch on quickly to the NBA game and the SG mins. are ate up between him and Wright…well, lets see what Wright can do… I am not familiar with him except for what I read on various blogs (which tend to overrate new players on the squad)… a healthy, well rested JC only means good things as the season goes on… and now having JJ is a great insurance for both positions….
I only recently found Raptors Republic, and glad I did!!
The Raptors won the Atlantic because the rest of the teams sucked worse. A good team wouldn’t have lost first round with home-court to a team they owned during the regular season.
The Raptors did win their division because it sucked… but don’t make comparisons to the playoffs. The Raps came in with almost 0 playoff experience across the board. That is why they lost in the first round in 06/07… its not because NJ was the better team or because the Raps sucked.
eh? A good team with zero playoff experience shouldn’t be expected to have a better showing than they had? Not sure I buy into that. That’s as if to say talent disappears from one week to the next. I would agree that the lack of experience would show in, say, the first 2 games, but as a team of professionals that took themselves to a division title, if they were as good as advertised, they should have made pulled it out or at least looked better in defeat.
I’ve said it before….the only reason we won that title was due to the fact we played a lot of hurt teams at the right time. For weeks it seemed like we were playing teams missing one or two of their main guys. It was like Christmas.
Come on… don’t try to down play the importance of playoff experience. You know better than that as a basketball (or sports) fan
There is reason they call it the 2nd season. Its not a matter of talent changing from week to week… its a matter of an entirely different structure (not the right word) to the game. More intensity, much more physical, a change in how the refs approach a game. There is a big difference between the regular season and the playoffs. This applies to ALL SPORTS, not just B-Ball.
“….the only reason we won that title was due to the fact we played a lot of hurt teams at the right time
this is a cop out…. if you are willing to say this than it is more than fair to say that the reason last years poor showing was because of injury… and we both know thats not true. In 06-07 the raps were an unexpectantly good team in a very crappy division (and conference). They were not a top team by any stretch of the imagination… but they were a lot better than people expected. You give them a year or two playoff expereince and they beat NJ in the first round and likely lose in the 2nd round. They werent going to win a title or go deep, but they competed.
Why do people have such problems accepting what the Raps did…. we have a division title and we should be happy about that rather than trying to find excuses as to why we didnt deserve or earn it.
Exactly, Portland were much more talented than Houston, but they still lost, if it were down to talent, then they would have made it at least to the confernce semi’s
Let’s keep in mind that they were about 8 inches away from coming home for game 7. They really weren’t that bad in the series.
Now in the Orlando series it’s a different story.
We’ll agree to disagree. If your theory held water, we would have more second round appearances as a franchise since we’ve had our fair share of round 1 appearances.
Are the playoffs played with a different mindset? Of course. However, if a team has battled to win a divisional title over the course of 82 games, you’d have to believe that a desire to win is already in place.
People ripped the Raps for a poor showing against Orlando and that team featured “playoff experienced” players. Surprised they didn’t move on to the next round then….
-If your theory held water, we would have more second round appearances as a franchise since we’ve had our fair share of round 1 appearances.-
You are comparing Apples and Oranges here. Most of our playoff experience was on COMPLETELY different teams (ie. the Vince years). Bosh, Jose , TJ etc. only had 1 round of playoffs to draw off of… and then had to compete with D.Howard who we had no answer for. Funny how our best player was Kapono that round who… guess what… HAD more playoff experience than anyone else on that team (except Rasho). I would never say that 1 round of playoffs makes players playoff veterans. In fact I would say it proves my point that they needed more playoff experience.
Even if you feel T.O. battled for the atlantic division title (and it wasnt much of a battle)… that in NO WAY translates into playoff experience.
-you’d have to believe that a desire to win is already in place.-
And I do not beleive they didnt have desire to win… that is just ridiculous statement.
I really have no idea how someone who obviously watches and knows basketball can not appreciate the value of playoff expereince…. it boggles my mind. It seen time and time again… year after year… and yet you talk like it doesnt exist.
Since you like to quote, I guess you missed this one:
“Are the playoffs played with a different mindset? Of course.”
So, how many playoffs do Bosh and Jose have to play in for them to acquire your grandiose idea of *playoff experience*? 3? 4? 5? If it takes 4 or 5 appearances for a player to gain the desire or acumen that encompasses playoff ball, I question his value. You certainly can’t apply the team concept of your theory to a Raptor squad since BC has been here since he has never kept a consistent starting roster from one year to the next.
I wonder how your theory applies to individuals. Say, McGrady.
I guess looking at the roster, as currently constructed, we shouldn’t worry about going to the second round this year, correct? We haven’t added much playoff experience, so we are doomed.
I don’t know how many games, rounds, years a player needs to become experienced in the playoffs…. that is always up to the individual player or team. But I can say that 0 playoff games means no experience, and 1 round does not mean experience. Thats pretty simple.
Not taht this is really relevant but, as for this year I dont know how it will go… but I would say we have added alot of playoff experience (Hedo, Evans, George etc). And I would prefer if you didnt try to put words in my mouth….
Let’s not forget that the Raptors — who were full value for the Atlantic title in 06-07 — peaked too soon (around January/February) and then got hit with bordeline devastating injuries. They lost their glue guy (Garbo) in March, while both Ford and José got injured in the playoffs. I remember there was day-to-day concern if EITHER of them could play towards the end of that series. I think it was back spasms (a stinger?) for Ford and Calderon had back/neck or leg problems. There were hourly reports on the massage therapy Calderon was getting.
All teams suffer injuries and that’s part of the game. But the 06-07 Atlantic Division champs had bad injury luck and several of their best players — who were responsible for the title run — were not there or not 100% in the playoffs.
In my opinion, that’s what cost them the first round to NJ. Experience (or lack of) was not the main issue.
This is true. They needed two good perimeter defenders to defend RJ and VC and we really needed Garbo.
Also, Bosh was horrible passing out of the double teams that came all to frequently. It WAS Bosh’s inexperience that cost them a lot.
Wasn’t that the year Smitch won coach of the year? Nuff said. Clearly, the other teams in the Atlantic were taking a piss.
I remember a game a couple years ago where Smitch had Delfino handle the ball, put Calderon at the off guard and Jose basically killed the other team (Orlando?) as a spot-up shooter. Off the ball, I think he’s capable of being what Kapono should have been.
I still want him to bring the ball up court often cause I can’t fathom paying $8 million a year for a spot up shooter
Please don’t be offended, but this comment is something I’m just totally out of touch with. It’s like armchair accounting to me. I’m not sure how we got from cheering for wins to cheering for balanced budgets. All I know is, if the MLSE accountants become household names then the terrorists have won.
haha… awesome
Like Fruit-man???
Oh no, it’s begun. I’ll have to buy an extra case of water for the shelter.
Good thing I’ve still got my generator from Y2K!!
It’s comments/mini-discussions/threads like this that also contribute to the awesomeness of this site.
LOL!
Cheers guys
I really believe Jack will have a set number of minutes at PG and SG and trump Wright for the “extra” SG minutes. Jack’s a better offensive player and rebounder and can defend a good % of the SG’s in the league…and considering his new long term contract, he needs to be fully integrated into the teams rotation (remember Triano, the company man, is “in charge” of minutes).
I think Wright will be the one competing with Derozan for minutes. DD’s going to have a set amount of playing time and will be challenged to earn more of Wrights minutes. I think Wright will be used as a spot tone-setting starter (depending on match ups) and spot defender when there’s a SG that might give DD or JJ trouble. Wright’s is a one year rental and insurance that will allow DeMar to develop at a comfortable pace. If DeMar develops quickly, I believe Wright will be the odd man out and get spot minutes at best.
Nice to have a bit of backcourt depth to speak of after last years debacle. Practices at the ACC will a bit more interesting this year.
Some thing that everyone needs to remember about the Raptors of 2009/10.
This is a completely different team than last year, with 8 new players over half the team has changed.
This is a new coaching staff, with a specialist in charge of the defensive system, (for the 1st time)and a training camp to figure out who plays with who, and does what, in what offensive and defensive system that is decided on to fit the available talent.
It is going to take training camp, preseason, and the first 10/15 games of the season to have some idea how this will all playout.
A lesson learned from last year, the team can look great on paper, but the games are played on the court, against other teams trying to win.
This team will have 48 minutes of effective point guard play, barring injury to JC or JJ. Roko will be the 3rd PG, but should be kept as insurance, and playing in garbage time or in case of injury, which can happen at any time, to anyone, in the NBA.
Calderon’s defensive weakness is much over hyped by everyone due to having to play half the season with hamstring problems, and unable to move except straight ahead. He will never be excellent or great as a one on one defender, but can defend against most of the PG’s except the very athletic ones that everybody struggles against, and play team defense, when healthy.
During the season before when he started 50/60 games of 82 that he played,while TJ was out, there was no big concern about defense, while he created an All Star buzz, and speculation that he should, and may be picked to play in the All Game game. How soon we forget.
Last year’s team did not look great on paper.
Not unless your name was Bryan Colangelo.
Yeah, I don’t know if the team looked great last year. I think we were hopeful that a lot of the 50-50 things went our way like JO’s health, Bargnani’s development, Calderon’s durability as a starter, Roko backing up Jose properly, Bosh playing like an All-Star etc. All the things that we were counting on to happen didn’t happen, looking back I’d say those were unrealistic expectations, partially caused by media and fans who were madly in love with the JO trade.
Re: Calderon’s defensive weakness. I think we saw just exactly how weak he was in the playoffs when Jameer Nelson tore him a new one. Ford was equally guilty there too. Is he as bad as he was lat year? No. Can he guard his position? Remains to be seen but signs point to him needing help.
I would argue that Bargnani’s improved development did start happening last year, it’s just it started mid season once Smitch was cut loose.
Very good analysis, though I’d disagree that Calderon was that bad defensively pre-injury. The guy was absolutely atrocious last year on D because he could barely move. When healthy, though, he’s far from a stopper but I’d consider him about average on D.
…and while Jack is no Ford, I believe he’ll be able to penetrate and change things up a bit when he’s running the point. Plus, we’ll be able to play both of them together in the backcourt, a luxury that we didn’t really have with Forderon.
(Just noticed Johnn19 already pointed out the Jose thing. Meh.)
You can’t just look at Ford in isolation and not see what his play did to the rest of the team. Ford was a ball hog, dribbling everywhere, while the rest of the team just watched and waited for something to happen. This was shitty bball because it wasn’t ‘team’ bball.
Remember what MoPete said during the vince era?: “We don’t have any plays.. we just stand around.”
Tribal honking fans can only associate with high scoring players who satisfy their pathetic personal delusions… they have absolutely no concept nor understanding of team play.
With this current roster of Calderon, Hedo and Jack … the rest of the team had better be prepared to execute a high IQ half-court offense or else they are dead meat … believe it.
POLL: How do you rate the bball IQ of each of the players on the current Raptor roster … from a low of 1 to a high of 10 … where Nash is 10 and Ford is 1 …???
Well Roko is definately on the bottom of the list with our other scrubs close behind (POB, Banks, etc) – like maybe a 2/10 and the top would be close, but I would say Bosh – he can play MVP when he wants to, he just needs the motivation/stamina to play that way on both ends All season… so maybe 7/10? Its hard to rate since you generally compare Bball IQ to their relative skill…
Nice post – made me get all nostalgic.
I think we really have to start revisiting that 2007 season indepth – the way Arsenalist has begun to here. I mean, it still confuses me. Was it real? Were we really on the cusp of something beautiful that ended up slipping away from us, or did we simply overachieve in a division of unusually poor quality? Was BC really onto something different or was it just a one year exception to a 15 year pattern?
To think back, the division in 2006 and 2007 just sucked ballz to the MAX. Boston and Philly are legit teams now, and Boston is the impenetrable wall that will never make us win the division.
Ya I definitely think Turk will be better at finding cutters than Calderon. Not only that but Calderon off the ball makes me really excited because he is a knock-down shooter. Be prepared to see Calderon hitting a lot of shots because I’m sure Triano has told him to work on his spot up shooting since the Turk trade.
I dont think theirs enough sample size to accurately evaluate anyone’s ability to hit the cutters with passes since the Rap’s have never had any consistant off-the-ball cutters!! I think Calderon could prolly do a pretty decent Steve Nash impression given the opportunity… Bosh is good at it too for a Big…
Couldn’t the Raptors use the remaining money left from the mid level exception to sign Pops. His qualifying offer for for $1 mill. Isn’t the remainder of the mid level approx 1.6 mil or something, now that the Jack deal is finalized. That way they could get Pops (remaining mid-level), Rasho (bi-annual exception) and Delfino (bird rights) and then perhaps colangelo could just cut POB or maybe do a 2 for one trade of ukic and POB or ukic and banks or (Best case scenerio) Banks and POB, for maybe 1 scrub reserve big leaving the line up as
PG – Calderon/Jack/Douby/
SG – Derozen/Wright
SF – Turkoglu/Delfino/George
PF – Bosh/Evans/Pops
C – Bargnani/Rasho/ 1 extra big in a 2 for one deal with another team
I would be proud to call that team my 2009-2010 Raptors.
LukeCage22:
Your starting lineup has 3 team veterans, a new veteran and a rookie.
Your bench backup has 5 absolutely new players.
What do you think would happen if the bench of Jack, Wright, Delfino, Evans, Rasho were sent out on the floor as a squad??
If the Ratpors jell by January, that will be a miracle. Let us pray ….
Putting a lot of new players together can work. Example, the 07-08 champs… they had a alot of new players and rookies. They still turned out ok.
Im not saying this team will or wont work… but dont jump to conclusions about them not gelling.
The beauty of the NBA is that a 5 for 5 sub pattern does not have to happen, so the likely hood of all 5 of the bench guys being on the floor at the same time is very slim. I am trusting that through training camp and pre season the coaches will be able to distinguish the best line ups and match ups after the intital starting line up. Gelling is a question with any group of players on any team anyways, so that being a question is not so much of a factor.
The biggest thing when looking at that line up is making sure that when the bench players are being subbed in that there is a solid balance of offense and defense so that they can sustain a lead (or even build on a lead) while not being concerned with losing a lead or falling further behind in a game. I am confident that a bench of Jack, Wright, Delfino, Evans and Rasho, when subbed in with some of the starters, will be able to be very effective.
They will gell by mid December the latest, but even saying that, i still believe they will be a solid team from the beginning of the season.
Interesting comments about the 2nd line of new players and jelling. Don`t forget, out of that line-up, Rasho and Jack played together last year and Rasho-Delfino the year before. While Rasho and Delfino are technically new, you can also look as it as if they just took the year off.